SAVE THE LAST DANCE
US, 2000, 107 minutes, Colour.
Julia Styles, Sean Patrick Thomas, Kerry Washington, Freddro Star, Terry Kinney.
Directed by Thomas Carter.
Teenage dance films have had regular success at the box-office: Saturday Night Fever, Grease, Flashdance, Footloose, Dirty Dancing and sundry salsa and lambada movies. This one has a familiar enough story: young girl obsessed with ballet gives it up when her mother dies in a car accident on her way to an audition, relocates to Chicago and finds herself in an almost all-black high school. At the school she initially clashes with a confident student who eventually teaches her hip-hop style dancing and... the rest is pleasantly predictable. However, the tone of the film is much more serious than might first be thought. Julia Styles is a serious actress rather than just a teenage starlet and so she gives her character a bit more depth than usual. Sean Patrick Thomas is a black actor. This means inter-racial romance and bit of exploration of prejudice. While there are images of black urban gangs and violence, most of the students are more interested in their study, their work and the more ordinary things of life.
It's a bit long for those older audiences who might not be empathising immediately with the characters. With younger audiences it has been very popular.
1. The popularity of the film? Music? Dance? Romance? The Romeo and Juliet style story?
2. The Chicago settings, the ghetto, the suburbs, the poor apartments, the school, the streets? The contrast with the theatres, auditions? The club and the night sequences?
3. The title, Save the Last Dance for Me? The range of songs? The ballet music, the ballet sequences? The hip-hop music? The hip-hop dancing? The songs and their lyrics, accompanying the themes?
4. The introduction to Sarah, the train, her grief, memories of her ballet training, the build-up to the audition, the demands on her mother, her mother being busy with the flowers, the delivery, the car crash and her death? Sarah falling during her audition? Her anger with herself after being angry with her mother? Blaming herself for the death of her mother?
5. Her arrival in Chicago, the tension with her father? Moving into the apartment, its not being finished? Her father, his character, not wanting to ruin the marriage, his neglect of wife and child? A good jazz musician? Separating from the family, living in Chicago? His playing in clubs? Concern for Sarah, her going out and his not knowing, his waiting up for her? His fixing the house, her audition, his love for her, her letting him come to the audition?
6. School, the principal, classes, the discussion about Truman Capote, the initial debate with Derek? The friendship with Channille? Classes, the dining room, the blacks together, the whites together? Channille and her welcome? Nikki and her antagonism? Classes, gymnastics, her doing her ballet movements? The reaction of the other girls?
7. The friendship with Channille, inviting her to the club? Finding that Channille had the baby, her grandmother? Derek as her brother, wanting to go to Georgetown to study medicine? The letter of his acceptance? The rejoicing? Time at the club, the dances, Derek inviting her to the modern dance, her trying?
8. The friendship with Derek, his character, his abilities? His story about Malakai and the police, Malakai taking the police towards him and going to prison, Derek being free, his debts to Malakai? The friendship with Sarah, finding the place to rehearse the dance steps, her learning, friendship, doing things together, the sexual encounter?
9. Channille, the father of the baby, the clashes at the club, her succumbing to his charm, dancing with him? Her angers, his coming to the apartment, her anger and taking it out on Sarah, talking about the impression that she and Derek were making? Black and white?
10. The clash with Derek, his not understanding it, his leaving? Her practising for the audition, her needing Derek, her confusion? The build-up to the audition, Malakai asking Derek to come on the job, his agreement, feeling in debt, having hit Malakai because of Sarah? His decision not to go?
11. The audition, its being intercut with Malakai, the shootings, the police, deaths, Malakai’s arrest? Channille talking to Derek, his getting the train, hurrying to the audition? The modern piece, Sarah’s hesitation, her fall – Derek supporting her, her success? Acceptance to Juilliard?
12. The Romeo and Juliet story of teenagers in the modern city, the ghettos, black and white, the message of the film that there were no barriers between anyone, all equal? The message about opportunity, especially for African Americans in American society?
